And So It Must Be
by StrongHermione
Summary: An interlude of Mad-Eye Moody's thoughts and a brief conversation the night before they collected Harry from Privet Drive for the final time. Based off a prompt from Les Miserables and written for Round 2 of the Quidditch League Fan Fiction Competition


_Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling et al. Any characters or locations you recognise are the intellectual property of these individuals and corporations. I make no money from the writing of this story._

_This story is for Round 2 of the Quidditch League Fan Fiction Competition._

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_And so it must be, for so it is written, on the doorway to Paradise, that those who falter and those who fall, must pay the price._

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The meeting of the Order of the Phoenix broke up after going through the plan one more time. The volunteers for the mission—even the reluctant one—were briefed, practised and primed for any eventuality.

Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody stumped his way across the yard at the Burrow whose owners had graciously turned it over as a new Headquarters for the Order now that their previous command centre had been compromised. Mad-Eye had added a few enchantments of his own prior to their departure of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. If Snape, that murdering traitor, showed up there he would be in for a rude awakening. With any luck the man would be incapacitated long enough for Mad-Eye himself to arrive and despatch the turncoat into the ever-after. Moody was realistic though, he knew that the moment the Death Eater realised the enhancements he would retreat like the coward he was rather than face the wrath of his former colleagues.

Moody halted his solitary walk at the border of the garden. He stared out at the night sky, the stars bright in the sky on this summer evening. He looked up at Sirius, the Dog Star. Moody was not a man inclined to relying on luck or praying, or any of that fool Divination that so many of his kind believed in. You lived by your wits, your own skills. If you could not do something for yourself then you should not expect someone else to do it for you. Always plan for the best, but expect the worst. Constant vigilance! Above all, constant vigilance! But in this moment, he called for the divine assistance of one of their fallen members, on the very star the man was named after.

His inner thoughts were interrupted by the soft crunching of footsteps coming toward him. He gave no outward sign that he had heard anything, just kept gazing at Sirius and the surrounding stars.

"You wanted to speak to me privately, Auror Moody?" Hermione Granger announced her arrival.

"Yes, Miss Granger. You are one that Potter trusts absolutely implicitly, am I correct?" he asked gruffly.

"I like to think so, sir," she replied.

"Good, I may need you to commit an assault on his person tomorrow night."

"An assault?" she repeated in confusion.

"From what those twins were sayin' earlier, we might have some trouble with Potter agreeing to this plan," Moody explained. "You've done a good job brewing that Polyjuice Potion for the last month but it will be all for nought if we can't get the final ingredient. You will be able to get close enough to him to forcibly relieve him of his hair if needed. You're not going to have 'moral objections' to that are you?" he asked with a sneer.

"No, sir," Hermione assured him. She took a fortifying breath and tried to sound unconcerned, "It's just hair after all, and it's for his own good. You can count on me to obtain it if needed."

"Thank you, Miss Granger," Moody acknowledged. "That'll be all," he said, dismissing her. Hermione nodded and turned on her heel to go back inside the house.

"That's everything then," Moody said to the night sky.

He had been quite surprised when Mundungus Fletcher had proposed this plan. He had never known the shifty wizard to come up with an idea like this before but he supposed even the most unlikely of soldiers could produce a moment of inspiration at some point in their life. Moody had picked the plan apart a hundred different ways before he took it to the other members of the Order. They then picked it apart a hundred times more before deciding it was the best way to go. They added a few enhancements and tweaked a couple of the perceived weak points to strengthen them. Of everything that had been thought of, this was by far the best idea they had.

Moody had personally selected the pairs that would lead away from Privet Drive—hopefully without a tail of Death Eaters but he knew that was wishful thinking. You-Know-Who would definitely have some lookouts posted and they would quickly call their compatriots to join them. Moody could only hope that they would provide enough of a distraction with seven Potters departing the house that it would take the Death Eaters some time to organise themselves and allow them to escape. He was also relying on the Death Eaters thinking that the real Potter would be guarded by Moody himself. It made sense after all—the strongest member of the Order would surely be protecting the Chosen One. He hoped the Death Eaters would discount Hagrid as being entrusted with this most important of tasks.

Turning to look back at the bright lights of the Burrow, he noticed that the normal sounds of merriment, familial arguing and general mayhem was absent tonight. A seriousness had descended over the old home, as though it knew the role it was about to play in safe-guarding the hope of the Wizarding World. It rankled Moody that all their hopes were pinned on one boy, not yet seventeen. He had never advocated Dumbledore's philosophy that the boy should be left alone to enjoy his childhood and grow up as normally as possible. For whatever reason, Fate had decided that Harry Potter was to deliver the end of You-Know-Who or die trying, and in Moody's mind that meant the boy should have been at the Ministry at a young age, training in all forms of armed combat, advanced defensive spells and tactical thinking. Not cooped up in a Muggle household and kept ignorant of what was going to be expected of him

All the senior Order members had been told to trust in Potter, that he was their best hope. Codswallop if you asked him. The war would be over very quickly if they relied on one untrained, untried boy to lead them through it. Oh Dumbledore would always find excuses as to why Harry was ready for this—saving the Philosopher's Stone for example. The fool boy should have been nowhere near it! Saving the Weasley girl from a Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, again the boy should have left that to a qualified professor. Adventures such as the ones he had been involved in were not for children, they were for experienced, qualified witches and wizards to partake of. One of his biggest regrets was not having the opportunity to teach the students of Hogwarts what he thought they needed to know in order to prepare and defend themselves in this war.

The only way this war would be won was if they banded together and fought the common enemy. For once, they would lay everything out on the table and devise proper battle strategies that would see them through to a victorious conclusion—taking as many Death Eating scum on the way out with them as they could. He planned to meet with all the Order members once they had secured Potter safely and set this in motion. All would submit to questioning under Veritaserum, himself included. No more secrets, no more subterfuge within their own ranks. If this had been done a year ago, Dumbledore would still be alive and Snape would have long been rotting in a cell in Azkaban.

This was the way forward now. No hesitation, for hesitation was the precursor for failure. His volunteers were ready for the next mission and he would continue to oversee them for the next and the next and the next. Right up until the moment they could engage You-Know-Who for the final time and emerge triumphant—for they must.

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_My interpretation of the thoughts Moody could have had the night before they collected Harry from Privet Drive. The prompt is from Les Miserables and sung by the character of Javert. I took my inspiration from thinking of the most likely parallel character in Harry Potter and coming up with Moody._

_I hope you enjoyed it._


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